BRM Reviews wXw We Love Wrestling #41: Road to 16 Carat Gold 2023

[Big Red Machine]

wXw We Love Wrestling #41: Road to 16 Carat Gold 2023 (2/11/2023)- Bielefeld, Germany

NORMAN HARRAS ANNOUNCES THAT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, THIS YEAR THE WINNER OF 16 CARAT GOLD WILL BE CROWNED wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING CHAMPION AS WELL- I hate this.
Obviously this is being done to screw Levaniel, and Norman has the cover of the fact that they two World Tag Team Festival this way (though I hate that, too), but this feels like a retread to me. Either Levaniel thwarts Norman by overcoming the odds and winning the tournament to retain his title- which we essentially saw a few months ago when Levaniel won the title (just without the tournament), or Levaniel gets screwed out of his title, and you then restart that same story.
Just to drive the point home, Levaniel won’t even be given a spot in the tournament by virtue of being the champion. In order to get the final spot, Levaniel will have to win an additional tournament tonight.

OPENING SEGMENT- very good
Norman Harras came out with his pal Sebastian Suave and explained to the crowd what he had just explained to us in a video… so why waste time with the video? Levaniel came out and cut a fiery babyface promo telling Norman that he can play his little games if he wants, but it won’t matter. Levaniel will overcome the odds and retain his title.

ROAD TO 16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Levaniel vs. Mikael Schenkenberg- 5.25/10
Levaniel won a meh match cleanly. Norman tried to stop Levaniel from getting back I the ring to beat a ten-count by physically grabbing him. That right there should be enough for the Board of Directors to fire him at this point.

BABY ALLISON & MAGGOT PROMO FROM AFTER BACK TO THE ROOTS 2023[/i]- F*CKING AWESOME!
They thought their feud was finished with the Ladder match at the 22nd Anniversary, but now that Ahura has kept it going- and done so by blindsiding Allison, Maggot warns Ahura that “this is no longer confined to a wrestling ring.” Maggot will come after Ahura anywhere. “You are dead.”

DAN MALLMAN INTERVIEWS AHURA- great
Ahura is so great at playing the aloof douchebag that when he says things that I would usually deride as delusional heel comedy bullsh*t, it works for me, because unlike, say Chris Jericho, I don’t think he’s trying either make me laugh at him or trying be annoying by being over the top. It feels like Ahura says these things to get under his opponent’s skin, not to try to get heat from the viewer.
Aside from dealing with Maggot and Baby Allison, he says that you can’t have 16 Carat Gold without him, so he will win the qualifying tournament tonight, even if he has to take out Levaniel at the end. I assume this means that Maggot will be costing Ahura the main event.

ROAD TO 16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Ahura vs. Alex Duke- 4.5/10

ROAD TO 16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Anil Marik vs. Elijah Blum- 5/10
Anil’s hair is now longer and blond. He lost cleanly to a flash jackknife pin, so his losing streak continues.

DAN MALLMAN INTERVIEWS ANIL MARIK- great
Anil was very frustrated with his inability to win since returning from injury.

ROAD TO 16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Vincent Heisenberg vs. Fast Time Moodo- 5.75/10
This was six minutes of good “big mean giant vs. smaller, quicker striker.” It made me want to see what these two could do with eighteen minutes. Moodo got the win, which surprised me a bit.

AVA EVERETT PROMO- snore
She wants to regain the wXw Women’s Title.

AVA EVERETT & JACOB CRANE vs. BABY ALLISON & MAGGOT- 5/10
Ava has had black hair for a while, but their graphic still has her as a blonde. Crane wore a Pretty Bastards t-shirt to get under Maggot and Allison’s skin, I guess? Or maybe to make them so angry at the sight of Ahura that they’ll make a mistake? What wound up happening was that Maggot laid Crane out with a Bicycle Kick before the match started, so that backfired on them.
Maggot and Baby Allison won with their kind of cheat-y assisted version of Allison’s finisher. They left the hold locked in for longer than necessary for no real reason.

JURN SIMMONS vs. MASSIMO PESCA- no rating, entertaining squash
This went longer than it needed to, but I think that Pesca is such a goof that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Jurn tear him apart and take his time with it.

FOOTAGE OF BOBBY GUNNS & NORMAN HARRAS IN NORMAN’S OFFICE- decent
Bobby is pissed at Norman for screwing him out of his spot in 16 Carat Gold. He tried to be diplomatic at first by appealing to their past friendship, but Norman said something to him that must have been lost in translation, because Bobby got upset and grabbed Norman by the chin and threatened him. Norman reminded Bobby that he is Bobby’s boss and threatened him right back. Bobby left, frustrated. Norman waited until Bobby was gone to let his own frustration show.

BOBBY GUNNS vs. SEBASTIAN SUAVE- 6.75/10
Norman Harras did Sauve’s intro for him and gave him an undeservedly glowing one. Suave jumped the bell on Gunns. Gunns won cleanly in a little over twelve minutes.

ARROWS OF HUNGARY PROMO- good
They dare the Frenchadors to put the tag titles on the line against them. They said all the right things to goad the Frenchadors into doing it.

wXw SHOTGUN TITLE MATCH: Laurance Roman(c) vs. Nick Schreier- 5.75/10
Roman won cleanly to retain. Schreier was fine, but didn’t stand out in any way, either.

ROAD TO 16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FINAL: Fast Time Moodo vs. Levaniel vs. Elijah Blum vs. Ahura- 7.5/10
This was a really fun four-way that Ahura won. Ahura himself didn’t cheat, but that darn Norman Harras did hold Levaniel’s leg so that he couldn’t break up the pin. They did a great job of shooting this so that you couldn’t actually see Norman doing the grabbing from the hard-cam to give him plausible deniability, even though it’s pretty obvious what was happening.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Norman was a total asshole to Levaniel, taunting him, and demanding that he display good “sportsmanship” and hand over the belt. Levaniel was reluctant. I shouted for Levaniel to hit Norman with the belt, and announcer Dave Bradshaw did the same moments later. Norman reminded Levaniel that Norman gave the belt to him when he won it at 22nd Anniversary, and Levaniel showed that he was the better man and gave the belt Norman…
And then Norman asked Levaniel if Levaniel remembered what happened when Norman gave him the belt at 22nd Anniversary (Levaniel gave Norman, who had spent the match trying to screw him over, a well-deserved Galactic Facecrusher). That was the cue for Sebastian Suave to attack Levaniel. Norman taunted Levaniel while Suave beat on him until Jurn Simmons came out to take the save. He knocked Suave down, then went for Norman, but Norman threated to fire him if he touched him. Jurn cornered Norman, but Norman bought time for Suave to crawl up behind Jurn and him low. The beating resumed until Bobby Gunns came out to make the save. He put Suave down for good with an Ehrenmann Driver and then got in Norman’s face. Norman responded by saying that he is sick of hearing Bobby complain about not being in 16 Carat Gold (because Norman screwed him out of his qualifier) so Norman booked himself against Bobby at 16 Carat Gold. Bobby got in Norman’s face again, called him a motherf*cker, and told him he would kick his ass.


I don’t like not vacating the title like this, and the Board of Director’s continual refusal to remove Norman bugs me more and more because the Board of Directors should be babyfaces, but this is the story they are telling, and while it’s not a story I really want to see, I think they’re telling it competently, and they deserve credit for that. Having Levaniel lose the title like this also does remove the problem of it seeming like fait accompli that he will make it to finals of 16 Cara Gold and thus kill any suspense for his first three matches and the hopes of anyone rooting for someone on his side of the bracket.


This wasn’t a very good show in the ring from wXw, but it certainly was a newsworthy one. 16 Carat Gold is next, and I’m sure there will be more news there.